Sunday, August 21, 2016

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

Now that the CNE is on (along with it's wonderfully weird mystical food building), I know that the end of Summer is nigh. It's a rather bitter-sweet moment, since these past few months have been filled with great times with family, chances to get to the gym and even enjoying the (occasionally frustrating) forays into the garden. Of course, I've been playing with the produce I've been able to pick and procure from the farmer's markets, and since my herbs have finally decided to play ball in their boxes I've been using them in both sweet and savoury things any time I get a chance.

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

One of the great things I've rediscovered with my herbs is infusing - both salt and sugar this year have been herb-ified in my garden. A jar of cheap Kosher salt met up with a few of my rosemary sprigs for a gourmet-tasting pantry staple ready for Fall or Winter roast chicken, while nasturtium blossoms and lemon balm have made some fantastic (and beautiful) jars of sugar. It was the lemon balm sugar, along with a lemonade mix that a student of mine had gifted me, that inspired these carnival-sized, summer sunny yellow cookies. Inspired by Averie's recipe, I added fresh lemon balm to the mixture of infused sugar and strawberry lemonade mix for a pop of fresher "what could this be?" flavour. Tons of lemon zest followed suit, along with a shot of lemon extract and even lemon juice for kicks (and leavening!). I opted for a tiny touch of yellow food colouring to make the Kamut flour's natural golden hue pop, but of course it's optional!

How do you celebrate Summer (or it's swan song)? Let me know in the comments!

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies
Makes 8 giant cookies
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup cream cheese
½ cup granulated sugar (I used homemade lemon balm-infused sugar)
2 oz Too Good Gourmet Strawberry Lemonade Mix or ¼ cup Country Time Stawberry Lemonade Powder
1 tbsp Homemade Egg Replacer or Ener-G
1 tablespoon lemon extract
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon honey
yellow food coloring, optional and as desired
1 cup flour
1 cup Kamut flour
pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tbsp lemon juice
  1. In a bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, lemonade mix, egg replacer, lemon extract, lemon zest, honey and food colouring and beat until well combined.
  2. Add the flours, salt and baking soda, mixing well.
  3. Add the lemon juice and mix until just combined.
  4. Drop ⅓ - ½ cupfuls of dough (I used an ice cream scoop), rolled into balls, onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.
  5. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
  6. Heat oven to 350F and bake for about 13 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set. Cookies firm up as they cool.
  7. Cool on the baking sheet. 
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 280.8
Total Fat: 8.8 g
Cholesterol: 23.5 mg
Sodium: 24.0 mg
Total Carbs: 48.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
Protein: 4.7 g

No comments :

Post a Comment

Thanks for the feedback!